We gone: America and the Great Abdication

America and the Great Abdication: Don’t mistake Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the world for isolationism.

When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it’s normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers. This describes what happened with France and Great Britain in the case of Germany’s emergence after World War I and, more benignly, with the European powers and the rise of the United States during and after World War II.

To some extent America is facing a version of this—amid what Fareed Zakaria has dubbed “the rise of the rest”—with China’s ascendance the most significant development. But the United States has now introduced a third means by which a major power forfeits international advantage. It is abdication, the voluntary relinquishing of power and responsibility. It is brought about more by choice than by circumstances either at home or abroad.

Turtleneck wrote:

America and the Great Abdication: Don’t mistake Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the world for isolationism.  

When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it’s normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers. This describes what happened with France and Great Britain in the case of Germany’s emergence after World War I and, more benignly, with the European powers and the rise of the United States during and after World War II.

To some extent America is facing a version of this—amid what Fareed Zakaria has dubbed “the rise of the rest”—with China’s ascendance the most significant development. But the United States has now introduced a third means by which a major power forfeits international advantage. It is abdication, the voluntary relinquishing of power and responsibility. It is brought about more by choice than by circumstances either at home or abroad.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/america-abidcation-trump-foreign-policy/549296/

I.B. Fine wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/america-abidcation-trump-foreign-policy/549296/

No time to read that now, but it seems to be a mis-characterization of what I understand to be the strategy.
More like when the cabin depressurizes, grab your mask (America's) first, then look to help others, as opposed to the Obama method of let everyone else grab a mask (or 2) first, and hope one is left.
But whatever feeds your narrative....

Cameron wrote:

I.B. Fine wrote:
No time to read that now, but it seems to be a mis-characterization of what I understand to be the strategy.
More like when the cabin depressurizes, grab your mask (America's) first, then look to help others, as opposed to the Obama method of let everyone else grab a mask (or 2) first, and hope one is left.
But whatever feeds your narrative....

In this analogy, what is the cabin? What is the depressurization? What are the masks? You seem to assert that Obama was content to let America go without some vital resource if need be. I'm struggling to recall a situation in which he did that, but perhaps you have one in mind to which you are referring.

I doubt it, though, it seems far more likely that you are talking out of your ass.